stuffed!

How was your Christmas? I'm still full x

Vintage recipe book image by hmdavid on flickr.

duo wishes you a...

Hope you're having a wonderful day. x

Pic by Calsidyrose on flickr.

the wow mitchell road antique and design gallery

On Monday, quite unexpectedly I stopped off with my husband and mother at the Mitchell Road Auction Centre. My husband drops by here every now and then but I'd never been and now I know why -  because it is INSANE and AMAZING and other CAPS LOCK WORDS and my husband has surely been protecting our bank accounts!

Upstairs from the auction house is the Antique and Design Gallery and I managed to snap a few ugly camera phone pics to share with you. It is just nuts. I am in love! And after our trip to Melbourne I will be back!

alternative gifts: oxfam unwrapped

I ended up buying one of my brothers something very small for Christmas. It was so small in fact I felt it needed a card to go in (my other gifts were wrapped and tagged). I was in a hurry, on my way to the post office and planning to stop and pick up a standard un-eco holiday card when I walked past the Oxfam shop. I went in and found a way to make my small gift more meaningful with an 'unwrapped' card.

Oxfam, an incredible poverty fighting organisation, sells goats and chickens and beehives and toys every Christmas BUT not for you. For $10 I actually bought a chicken, which will go to a family in Laos to provide income and nutrition. And my brother receives a snazzy card, telling him about it.

It's just such a fantastic idea in that you can buy relatively inexpensive cards to use as regular holiday cards or you can spend $495 a pick up a buffalo. It's just madness and commonsense combined! I recommend you check out all the cards, that you can even buy and mail online.

wrap up

So last week's wrap up is delayed til today! Sorry! What a hectic time of year it is.
I am now officially on leave for 2 weeks :) This is just wonderful - it really is a wonderful time of year.
Are you on leave yet? What will you be up to this week?

Tomorrow we head to Melbourne to see my husbands family. Then back to Sydney in the new year. I'll be posting sporadically but stick around please! I love your comments.

Last week on duo:

• I fell in love with furniture
• You agreed that shiny things are very very pretty
• And that pre-loved jackets rock!
• Then we ended the week with more sparkles! More!

Around the web I'm loving:

• pinterest!
• this east side bride comment discussion on manners
• this Shabd skirt

Happy holidays! x

Note: Photo via Pharts&Crafts

shoe dress ups

Want to update your shoes? Then you should consider these snazzy shoe embellishments. A colleague at work was the first person to show me the kid's wings and lamented at how he couldn't get them for his son, as he's not big enough to wear real shoes yet. Alas, they make them in adult sizes, so I told him to forget the kid and get them for himself!

Gold superhero shoe wings by Small Fly. Fluffy silk flower shoe clips by Ban.do. And get disco with Silver Bowie knots from The 2 Bandits.

sweet sparkles on etsy

Blue is the second most popular colour in my wardrobe, after black. And you all know I'm fond of some sparkles (1,2) so it's no surprise that I am head over heals for these dresses I found on etsy. The first main pic I found by accident - if only it could make it to me in time for Christmas, sigh. The top pic is from Dear Golden Vintage, one of my top 5 fave etsy sellers, there vintage is always top class. The dress in lower pic is actually a sequin fabric, not a metallic which is a nice alternative to those full sequin dresses. Hope you like too. x

what becomes of your old rocker jacket?

I'm digging this handmade clutch by Sans Map. It's been upcycled from a pre-loved 80s purple leather jacket. It's an interesting purse, with a great story.

shiny pretty things

If you ever thought 'man, this outfit needs some shimmer' then you need to check out Ecoist's silver and gold collections. Handmade from recycled food wrappers, packages and labels these fair trade accessories will complement any cocktail dress this holiday party season. And the playful texture dulls their brightness just enough so you won't look like you're wearing the party's disco ball.

falling in love with furniture

I'm not what you would call a 'house proud' person - sure I like nice things but my home is a bit sloppy. You won't ever see me calling a chair a 'standout piece' or a table an 'investment' as it's just not how I think. But as I get older I want a lot more order and style in my home, and I start to notice things like this chair by Emiliano Godoy and my heart swoons. Yes, swoons! I can't think of any other way to describe it. I look at this sustainably made, crafted, glowing "Camouflage" chair and want it in a deeper way when I "wanted" the $5 chairs I have now that I picked up from Vinnies. There's just something about it.

Godoy describes it by saying “Camouflage” values these materials for their environmental and aesthetic particularities. As a window of truth, the carved texture denounces the misguiding veneering of particleboards with seemingly elegant wood textures, and open the discussion for the birth of new aesthetics using new materials.

I like that, and I like Godoy's overall approach to design. It's worth reading here.

(PS. I agree, that description sounds a tad uppity and the younger me, rolls my eyes!)

new start, new wrap up

Really, wow. Thanks for all the love this week. I really appreciate it! Duo makes my heart sing in a way I forgot it did and YOU all make it so worth while. So quickly just to wrap up the week so we cant kick start the weekend, here's a wrap up of this weeks duo posts:

• Striped shirts from Oz
• Green gifts for your sis and mine :)
• UGLINESS
• print free file formats
• non-ugliness: Sandals for summer (and a leather vs faux leather discussion in the comments)
• Thanks for your help with Christmas cards. More ideas? Please!
• And musings on lipsticks and fish scales (who knew!)

And here are some links from across the interweb that I enjoyed this week:

• An amazing and extensive diy gift guide from mint
• Posh wellies
• A pretty garland (in the snow)
• Mama in a kelly green coat
• And though not online, I rewatched Capote this week. Wow.

What are you up to this weekend? I get to go camping tonight and I am very excited. Our usual camping group will be joined for the first time by a baby! I'm a bit anxious to see how our friends cope with baby Kiera's first trip away and if she likes it (are we born campers?). Tell me your plans ok!

Photo by Michelle on our last camping trip to Seal Rocks.

green gifts for your best brother

All brothers are the best right? You can't choose one over the other ever - right. So to spoil your best brother (and any guy friend) this holiday season consider these eco gifts:

Buy an upcycled gift like a Mighty Wallet (I want the Fonzie one), $US15. Real organic 100% pure maple syrup from organicfood.com.au, $16.65. Vintage scotch bottle from Eeksten, $US22. 1970 Better Homes and Gardens Handyman's Book from lisabretrostyle2, $US12. Country style with this Vintage Bronze Grizzly Bear Belt Buckle from SanFranLeather, $US23. Explore and appreciate Australian landscapes with Shack by Simon Griffiths, $45. Hot vegan Toms, $US54.

See another gift guide: green gifts for your darling sister.

found them

I found your perfect summer shorts: John Patrick Organic Elastic Rolled Short available on La Garconne. Or if you live up north and are freezing pair them with these cute organic hemp leggings.

thinking twice about my lipstick

What this blog forces me to do is to assess the everyday decisions I make and the possessions I take for granted and study them. But there is no rhyme or reason as to why I look into certain things be it leather, cotton or even loofah's and I like it this way. So that's why I am writing about lipstick.

Today, while perusing the interwebs I was painting my nails and thought "what the eff is in this stuff?!". But not being up for playing the 'Sherlock Holmes of the internet' role I distracted myself by thinking about my fabulous new lipstick (that I got on sale) that was next to me, which I had bought along with the fabulous gold nail polish (not on sale) and my for some silly reason brain remembered a frightening phrase I once heard "there are fish scales in lipstick".

I have no memory of where I read or heard that fact but at the time it was a factoid I really wanted to suppress deep deep deep into the depths of my brain and never ever ever ever think about again. It just grossed me out. My brain however, felt differently today and I found myself searching wikipedia with wet nails. This is what I learnt:

• Cleopatra had her lipstick made from crushed carmine beetles, which gave a deep red pigment, and ants for a base.
• In 16th Century England, lipstick was made from a blend of beeswax and red stains from plants.
• The first commercial lipstick had been invented in 1884 [and was] covered in silk paper and made from deer tallow, castor oil, and beeswax.
• Lipsticks with shimmering effects were initially made using a substance found in fish scales called pearlescence. And still today, shimmery lipstick may contain mica, silica, fish scales, and synthetic pearl particles to give them a glittery or shimmering shine.

My oh my oh my. At first I freaked - I can handle beeswax, fake pearls and oils but I'm not so sure if I want to slide fish scales across my face (and unavoidably eat it). But after a bit of time I thought about how I eat fish and cows and sheep and I don't mind recycled leather and how I'm not trying to become a vegetarian here, I'm just trying to think twice about it all. So I calmed down. And then put on the lipstick.

You see, I'm not trying to live a life of avoidance (and annoyance) but just a life where I think about what I am doing. I think it's shameful that for the past 15 years I have worn many lipsticks, lipbalms, lip glosses, lipstains and lipliners and never once thought "what the eff is in this stuff?". Because I should have. I should know where the stuff I buy, put on my body or in my home comes from and what impact it has on the planet and on people.

christmas cards

This holiday season I've had a bit of trouble thinking of how to go about sending Christmas cards and making gift tags. In past years, I have made my own with blank cards, paint, stickers and so on but all these things I bought. This year I want to take a different approach and make them with supplies I have already at home. Though I know I can't necessarily avoid buying some things,  I want to try hard to not be wasteful.

Do you have any ideas or experience with this? I have a few spare bits of card from cereal boxes and such and a bit of ribbon, tape and coloured paper. Your thoughts?

Vintage card pack above from Memory Saver.

summer means sandals

After the disturbing sandal post from this morning, today I give you some eye (foot?) candy:

Top to bottom: Vintage leather flats from Kmalinka Vintage, Marais USA faux leather criss-cross sandals (on sale!), Vintage Rainbow sandals from Sally Lou Vintage.
Also, for other vintage shoes Pineapple Mint is having a shoe sale.

save as wwf

Imagine if you couldn't print your pdf files or Word documents. Just think of how many trees you would be saving by not printing unnecessary. Well WWF in Germany have created a new file format, the .wwf, constructed so that it cannot be printed. It's like a pdf format but it just won't let you hit 'print'.

I'm really impressed by this clever thinking - it shows that sometimes we don't need to invent new methods or objects but just think again about the ones we have. But to be realistic we do need to print sometimes, but I think the extra step of converting your wwf to a pdf to print will be a reasonable barrier that will deter waste.

It's also really easy to use: Simply drag an existing pdf to the wwf app icon in your doc and it will duplicate the file as a wwf file, in the same file location as the original. I was able to then open wwf file in Adobe Acrobat and Chrome but not Preview or Word.

You can download the wwf app here (btw the site is in German). Right now it's only available for Mac, with Windows coming soon.

Now the most pressing issue is what do we call these files? Dot-W-W-F is just too long. So how about 'wiffs' or 'woffs'. Got any better ideas?

organic sandals

I googled 'organic sandal' and found these. Cmon, no one really buys this grossness do they?

I don't care that it has "all natural, biodegradable uppers of hemp, wool and yak down and soft French terry linings of hemp and certified organic cotton" and a "non-slip weatherproof outsole of 25% recycled TPR for indoor/outdoor wear" not that I even know what that last bit means (but it sounds helpful). I don't care that it's good for the planet - it's poisoning my eyes! Why does planet friendly have to look so ugly?

Fortunately the site says "We're sorry -- no color of this style is currently available." Which is equally vague, comforting and disturbing.

green gifts for your darling sister

It's about this time of year, that every blogger worth their comments posts one or two or five Christmas gift guides. To me, they range from helpful to absurd but ultimately they perpetuate the idea that you MUST buy your loved ones the bestest, flashiest, most expensive present ever - that's why the "Under $50!!!!!!" gift guides are so often called "stocking filler guides" because you're not meant to buy just one.

So you can call me irked. But just don't call me a party pooper. I understand that gift giving is a part of the holiday season, heck I do it and I do try to do it well. It's just the idea of the waste and all the 'want over need' thinking that goes on that upsets me.

That all said (ie rant over) here are a few sweet Christmas gifts I would recommend for a wonderful sister. It's just a quick mix of eco, green, earth friendly, fairtrade, organic and vintage gifts that I hope you like. So remember if you are going to buy up big this holiday season, remember to support local stores, green businesses and buy only what's necessary.

Vintage brass pendant and chain from Dinosaur Toes on etsy, $US18. Woodland Animals Pencil Case in Organic Cotton from Pocket Carnival on Made It, $22. Gift a gift of eco knowledge with a Peppermint Magazine subscription, from $44. Vintage blue lace 50s jacket from Freckle Wonder on etsy, $US38. Design her a personal reusable KeepCup. from $12. Upcycled and repurposed journal from Monclair Made on etsy, $US4. Fairtrade felt babooshka doll ornament on Biome, $14.95. Have fun. x

striped up

After link skipping across Awoke Vintage last week I've been contemplating snapping up one of their striped vintage shirts. But to be fair to the planet and my wallet (shipping costs us both) I decided to not buy one UNTIL I saw they are in fact from Australia and NOT the other side of the world (like most vintage I fall in love with). Ha ha! Shipping is just $1 within in Australia and 50c if you buy another item. Oooh la la. This could be dangerous. I mean, have you seen the dresses?

it's not quite midnight yet

Today is a new day for duo. It's not the full new year yet but for duo it's a fresh beginning. There aren't many changes to the site - I've simply finessed a few things like the blogroll, added a couple of ads (please dont hate me for that) and I feel that the posts I have in store are better.

It's been a big, heavy, hard, full year for me personally and I am really looking forward to bigger and better things with duo. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of your sweethearts who have stuck around and for your kind words and encouragement. You're very much appreciated. x

I really have no excuses...

...except to say, things in life are looking up. AND after an encouraging lunch with Miss McWhinnie today I have decided to facelift duo and begin posting again. Stay tuned. And thanks for you patience.